Toronto’s parks department tried last year to find a company to operate the money-losing Earl Bales Park ski facility. It failed. The department then suggested closing the facility for a winter. Council disagreed.

Now, as the city begins contemplating major service cuts, the department is proposing a major new investment. It wants to replace Earl Bales’ old and slow chairlift, and undertake other renovations, at a possible cost of about $2 million.

Toronto’s two municipal ski parks have received scrutiny during several budget crunches. But they have been defended by both left-leaning councillors and fiscal conservatives such as Mayor Rob Ford for offering cheap and convenient access to an expensive pursuit.

The department wants to replace Earl Bales’ archaic two-person chairlift with a new four-person lift. To do this, and to and improve its night-skiing lighting and ski chalet, it plans to spend as much as $200,000 this year and then ask council for as much as $2 million more for 2012.

Right-leaning local councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre) said he supports both the preservation of the North York facility and the proposed spending. Pasternak said he has been told the current chairlift is unsafe.

“If the lift is unsafe, then clearly, we have to invest the funds to make it safe, or we have to shut it down. The ski hill is a pretty popular community asset,” Pasternak said.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday concurred. “No matter who operates it — unless we’re going to close the ski hill down, which we’re not — it needs new machinery. I don’t like that we’ve got an expense, but you have to face the facts,” Holyday said.

North York Alpine Racing Club president Clive Kessel said the chairlift has broken down on several recent occasions, most frighteningly on one cold night in March. More than 20 children and teenagers were stranded in the air for twohours when the chairlift stalled. The fire department was called, he said, and they had to be lowered down.

“I think that probably prompted them to realize it needed to be replaced. It was just becoming totally unreliable,” he said.

Stephen O’Bright, supervisor of capital projects for the parks department, said the current chairlift is outdated but safe. The primary purpose of the upgrade is not safety, he said, but to increase the lift’s capacity.

If the department tries again to outsource the operation of the facility, O’Bright said, the improvements could make it more attractive to companies. The city said in 2010 that outsourcing the Glen Rouge Campground and the ski facilities at Earl Bales and Etobicoke’s Centennial Park could save $600,000 per year.

About 7,000 people registered for skiing and snowboarding in 2009. About 54,000 people made drop-in visits.

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